Americans have long been transfixed by the brutality that took place inside the walls of Alcatraz, and fascinated with the notorious inhabitants imprisoned there. These images of the shuttered, famously inescapable penitentiary capture the ominous mood of isolation and confinement still present today. Light streams through windows—a sort of prisoner’s cinema—onto the crumbling paint of another era.

View images from Patricia Sheilds' Capstone Exhibition down below (click the images to advance the slideshow).